Didi

Certainly, an impressive debut feature, Sean Wang’s Sundance darling Didi echoes other recent coming-of-age stories like Are You There, God? It’s Me Margaret and Mid90s, which are nostalgic pieces about young teenagers growing up in certain eras. Like those films, Didi doesn’t delve too deeply into nostalgic romanticizing, but it certainly touches the heart and mind. There is great empathy for the life of a young person, and Wang’s debut feature is quite a personal narrative.

The film set is in 2008, in Fremont, California, where we meet young protagonist Chris Wang (Isaac Wang), who lives in a suburban house with his mother (Joan Chen), his older sister Vivien (Shirley Hen), and his Nai Nai (Zhang Li Hua). Like most kids growing up in the 2000s, Chris spends a lot of his time on Myspace, Facebook, and YouTube. He also has a visible social life where he is endlessly teased by his friends, who call him “Wang Wang.” He also develops a crush on a girl, Madi (Mahela Park), who is a friend of his that he ends up talking to more on a then-brand-new online program called Facebook and an on-AIM message. There are amusing moments where we hear the chat sounds and nostalgic sound effects of AOL and Myspace that will generate chuckles for anyone who has experienced those bygone online programs.

Courtesy Focus Features

In one hysterical scene, Chris even looks up a YouTube video on “how to kiss” tutorials. He ends up going on a date with Madi, in which she upstages her movie knowledge to Chris who lies about seeing such films as Star Wars and Jaws. He tells her that he likes certain romantic movies like A Walk to Remember after researching her page. Sadly, Madi makes some racist judgements that makes Chris feel uncomfortable. Chris finds himself being disconnected with her after a socially awkward date, and his friendship with his close friends Farad (Rual Dial) and Soup (Aaron Chaung) appears to be slipping away. He ends up getting more into skateboarding, where he encounters a group of skateboarders where he claims to be an experienced skateboard “filmer” only for his footage to prove he is just an amateur.

As Chris’s life seems to fall apart with his friends, his life at home also appears to be in disarray. He feels isolated from his father being gone on business in Taiwan; his mom gets into heated debates with Nai Nai; and while Chris has a love-hate relationship with his sister, she is soon to move out for college. Filmmaker Sean Wang does a vivid job recreating the late 2000s, and he shows just how chaotic life can be for teenagers in the moment as we laugh them off as we get older. Chris ends up taking his frustrations and aggressions out on his mother; however, there is great warmth to be found in their scenes as well. In one sincere moment, she takes him out to McDonald’s, where she cuts up her Big Mack sandwiches and eats them with a fork.

Courtesy Focus Features 

There is wisdom in this film that is vivid and useful. Not only is the film very accurate to the period detail of 2008, but the way kids dress, talk, and interact is certainly accurate to the way kids talked in that era. There are many moments that flourish with sweetness and joy, while there are some sad ones as well. Especially in how Wang captures how Chris’s built-in anxieties are developed from loneliness. Chris’s father is away, he keeps losing friends, he can’t secure a relationship with his crush, and his deception about his filmmaking ends up costing him his friendship with his new skater friends. Even with all this angst, there are many splendid moments in the writing and performances that pay off with deep sincerity. Especially the moments with Joan Chen, who delivers a magical performance. While Didi might explore some very familiar terrain, it’s still a smart and sophisticated coming-of-age story, one that still feels notable, a singular one that rises above expectations.

Didi is now playing in limited theaters and opens in metro Detroit on August 15th.